Method of making mats



' w. 1. KENT.

METHOD OF MAKING MATS.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 6. I920.

Patented Apr. 25, 1922.

3 SHEETS-SHEET agi wiLuam Ike 1H1.

w. 1. KENT.

METHOD OF MAKING MATS.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 6, I926.

Patented Apr. 25, 1922.

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W. J. KENT.

METHOD OF-MAKING MATS.

v APPLICAHON mm mm s, 1920.

Patented A r; 25, 1922.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

$ 41.4.: wo'oueq 5] wwwto o (Mia Lam J \(e nt n a givenxperlod;

mama a nriinnr, or momma; NEW YORK, Assrenon TO THE MECHANICAL a r 9 g, y

' amnesia COMPANY, A CORPORATION on NEW JERSEY.

finishes; L

" "Application filed May'6, 1926. serial No. 379,213.

To allfiwhfom'itm'dy camera. I

Be it known that I, IVILLIAM J. KENT, a citizen ofthe United States, residing at Brooklyn, in the countybf New York and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in, Methods of Making Mats,of which the following is a full,clear, andexact description.

My' 'nvention relates to the art of making mats having difierent designs formed of openingsjor perforations, and made of rubber or other v '11cani'zab1e material.

In the common practice of today, the mats are cut to, size, the design laid out on the surface ofthe mat, and thelopenings are then punched by hand;

This process'is slow, costly, and requires a large area of' flo'o'r space, when considerlng the number-0f square feet'ofmats turned out a method of in a continuous manner horn a continuous str p;

The machineusedfin -carrying" out the method comprises a cutting bed, a plug removing bedadjacent 'tol the cutting bed, a reciprocating cutter or punch head to which cutting punches arejsecured ina prearranged order abovefthe bed, and an" equal number ofdurniny punches above the plug removing bed which arefarranged' -inl'fthe same order as the cutting punches;

the; openings to the; design, Without removing; the .-plugs ',lwhich plugs are re moved by'vtlie punches after the stripfis ad anced cnejstep to bring the cut portion nnder the{dummy punches and to bring anuncut;portion of the strip under th xerunqhes Theretamingfofthe the just forme by the cutting punches will st en the h e forist in at thi gper o as lieaira L the Open ng w ich form the l eda r m co l psi g; an as thisportionof the stripis retained against I distortion, it follows-that the uncut'portion d11ndrfi1 xnitti11e Fulfiles w l l e in a proper position under the" punches" so that f mn'rnon or MAK NG Mars;

Specification of Letters Patent.

The 'ob ecti' of my" invention is to: provide the design will be 'perfectly formed thereon.

A further object of my invention is to provide a method in which the plugs are 7 positively removed fromthe openings after a fresh uncut strip has beenmoved under the punches. This positive'rem'oval of the plugs w ll prevent any of'the' plugs from being retained within the openings, and prevent the plugs from'being rolled between the 'convolutions of the continuous strip, which would mar the mats V The precise nature of my invention will be best understood reference to the ac companylng drawings, it being obvious, however, that various changes may be made in the detailsof construction, and general arrangement of, the parts of the mechanism, I

without departing from thespirit andyscope of my I claims. 7 I .In thejdrawings,

form of apparatus for finalizing matsl Fig. 2- is afsectional view"on ,:the line2 '-2 i of Fig. l, the section being taken'through "the continuous strip; f c. i 'Figg3 is a detailsec tional viewer one of 1 the punches, and f Fig. 4 is'aplan view of a portion of the continuous strip, showing .the plugs removed fromuone portion of thest'rip, while the design has beenpunched onanother "portion adjacent thereto, but inflwhich the plugs have been retained within the punched Op ng c g In these draw-ingsfliie rename ,ah raaer 2 designates the frame of a punching nachine, having a? cutting body 3 and a plug removing bed/i. V Mounted for reciprocation in suitable guides in the frame .2 is a punch head 5, having connected directly thereto aseries of cutting punches 6 and dummy or plug-removing punches 7. -The plugre moving punches areequal in numbertothe cutting punches 6 and are arranged, in precisely the same order, so as to register with invention as defined in the appended I F g. '1, and Fig. ,cillustrate. somewhat V diagrammatically a side elevati'on of one the u e inthetroui ,oft eaatinuous strip fed under'thep'unches 7 hi hi openings were cut by the punches v 6' ontlfie previous stroke of thelmachineg Th plu'g removing bed. liis provided with suitable; openings through which the plugs may 'fall after being pushed out of the Open i f crank shaft 9, which may be continuously rotated by any suitable connections, or the rotation may be controlled by a clutch actuated by the lever 10. This crank shaft 9 is connectedto the cutter head 5Vby means of a connecting rod 11, which'is arranged to reciprocate the cutter head. Rotatablymounted in. bearings on the frame of the machine is a shaft 12 having mounted thereon a feed roller which engages the lower face of the continuous strip 13, which passes from a roll supported at 14c. Mounted in sliding bearings 15 in the frame of the machine is a roller 16, which engages the upper face of the strip 13. This roller 16 is yieldingly held in contact with the upper face of the strip by spring 17,the'ten sion of which is adapted to be adjusted by means of nuts 18.

The feed rolls above described are arranged to be actuated by gearing 19 connecting a shaft 20 to the shaft 12, and mounted on the shaft 20 is a ratchet wheel 21 whichis adapted to be actuated by pawls 22 on a pawl crank 23. This pawl crank 23 is loosely mounted onthe shaft 20, and is actuated by means of a connecting rod 24 connected to a crank 25 on the crank shaft 9. The connecting rod 24 is provided with universaljoints, and'is also provided with a turnbuckle 26 for adjusting the lengthof the connectingrod' The crank pin 27 for connecting the upper end of the connecting rod 24 to the crank 25 isarranged to be adjusted radially along the crank 25, for varying the throw of the pawl crank 23, while the gearing connecting shafts 20 and 12 is also adapted-to be changedfor varying the feed of the strip 13. p I r I 28 designates a take-up roll support for the continuous strip, the roll being fric tionally driven by a belt 29 from a shaft 30. The shaft 80 is positively driven by means of a chain 31 which engages a sprocket wheel on the shaft 12. p

The punches 6 are'made of various shapes, and are arranged to punch the particular design to be formed. These punches are hollow, and are secured to a false bed or plate connected tothebed 5, and are secured byfmeans of screws 32, see Fig. 3. Mounted v for reciprocation within each of the punches 6 is a spring-pressed plunger 33 having a head; 341- on the lower end. thereof, the arrangement being such that when the punches are moved into contact with the strip, the head34 will contact with the strip and the punches 6 will be forced through the material.

As the punches are elevated on the return stroke of the punch head, the punches or cutters w ll b rem ved f mv h formed Openings, while the plugs cut from the strip will be retained in the openings. If desired, suitable strippers for the, body of the mat may be connected to the'punci head 5; f

Incarrying out my invention, a continuous strip of vulcanized material formed of the proper width is made up into a roll which is mounted on the roll support 14 in front of the punching machine. The end of the strip is then fed between the feed rolls over the feed table 35 and the adjustable guides 86 on the feed table are adjusted, to feed the material in right lines to the feed rolls. In the first, operation of the machine, the cutter head is depressed, which will form one mat or a portion of the mat, by cutting the design therein without removing any of the plugs from this portion of the strip. As the punch head 5 is elevated, the strip 13 will be advanced a sufficient dis tance for the next out, and transfer the cut design under the dummy punches 7, so that on the next downward stroke of the punch head 5 .a second design will be formed by the cutters 6 and the plugs will be removed from the first design by the dummy punches 7, the completed designs being rolled on the roll on the support 28 in a continuous manner by the take-up mechanism. v

It is desirable that the dummy punches be. disposed directly next to the cutting punches so as to act on the perforated portion of thesheet simultaneously with the punching of the next succeeding portion, as

otherwise, owing to the elastic nature of the material,the dummy punches 'areliable to be out of register with the cut plugs.

It is essential that hollow sharp :edge punches be used in connection with an opposed solid bed, owing to the extremely tough and elastic nature of the relatively thick sheet being operated on. If blunt edge or solid punches cooperating with a perforated bed be used, the openings formed are not clean cut or exact, owing to distortion ofthe sheet around each opening.

The retaining of the plugs within the cut openings will prevent the distortion ofthe cut portion of the continuous strip, as the walls of the openings are prevented from collapsing, and as this portion of the strip is prevented from becoming distorted, there is no danger of the fresh portionof the strip being fed under the cutting punches 6 being distorted. Furthermore, as the plugs are retained within the openings, under the cutter punches, and are then forced through the material and thebed below the dummy punches, there is no danger of anyof the If the continuous strips are provided with plugs being deposited on top ofthe sheet, and consequently rolled between the differ- V a fabric backing, the fabric backing is fed directly under the punches so that the fabric will be the first portion cut by the punches,

, and in this case Ifpreferto use the cross belt 29 foractua-ting the'takeup mechanism 28 so as to; bring theupper side of'the mat on the exterior of the roll;

The" advantages of 1 my invention result from the provision of a method forcontinuouslyforming nats from a vcontinuous strip, whereby I am enabled to form a strip which can be cut up into a plurality of short mats, or a runner made up of a plurality of mats. A further valuable feature isthat of retaining all the plugs within the openings from which they have been out, which will prevent-the distortion of that portion of the strip to be next fed under the cutting punches,'as wellas the "stepof positively removing all of the plugs from the cut openings insuch' a manner as toprevent any of the cut' plugs from being rolled up with the continuous strip} m Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to protect by Letters Patentis:" a a 1; The method" of making vulcanized rub ber mats which comprises subjecting the vulcanized sheet simultaneously to the perforating pressures of aplurality of hollow dies of s'uitable contours and arrangement to'impar-t to the sheet a predetermined desigmpositioning thesheet to present an un-- perforated'portion to the dies spaced a predetermined distance from the design previously formed and repeating the perforat ing operation to produce a second design,

by a stretch of unperforated rubber:

2. The method of making vulcanized rubspaced from the previously formed design 40 ber mats which comprises subjecting the vu1-,

canized sheet simultaneously tothe perfo'rat- V ing pressures of a' plurality ofhollow dies of suitable contours andarrangement' to cut plugs from the sheet in afpredetermined de-' sign while maintaining the plugs in the openings in the sheet formed the dies,

positioning the sheet to present a succeeding unperforated portion to the dies and repeating the perforating operation to produce a succeeding design and simultaneously with the formation thereof removing the plugs from the preceding design.

by simultaneously severing a plurality of plugs of material-from the sheet in a prede= termined arrangement while maintaining the plugs in position in thesheet, repeating the severingoperation at spaced intervals on the sheet, and removing the cut plugsfrom each design simultaneouslyjwith the severing of the plugs in the succeeding design.v a

ay, 1 920." i v i 'ned at New York, N. Y., thi t}; da -1 W LL A KENT- 

